Teachers are honored at recent breakfast

Published: October 15, 2005 8:00 PM

Maria (Miller) Prater, a sixth grade math and reading teacher at Ridgewood Middle School and is one of three teachers in Coshocton County who has been recognized for their service with an Exemplary Educator Award by the Muskingum Valley Educational Service Center (MVESC). The award was presented to her at a breakfast meeting in Zanesville. Prater graduated from Meadowbrook in 1992 and Muskingum College in 1996. She is the daughter of Byesville residents, Margie and Thomas Miller and resides in West Lafayette with her husband, Jason and their three children, Alexis and twins Zach and Bryce.She was, along with eight others from the MVESC area, honored for her accomplishments and service within the school system.This is the third year the program to recognize exemplary teachers has been in place, after being put into motion thanks to a $20,000 Jennings Grant given to the MVESC in August 2001. Each separate schools administration nominated one educator within that school for the award, which the districts administration then chose the recipient.Mike Masloski, Ridgewood Middle School principal, nominated Prater for the honor, and is proud that she was selected. Maria was also selected as one of 50 educators in the state for the Jennings Summer Mathematics Workshop in Aurora, where she attended four half-day workshop and had all expenses paid for her and her family.